Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-16

sonal service, 2, 1886 of whom, are do
nestle servants ard laborers, while /, 80
20 are employed in trade and transporta-
.t ~ ana ., sal. ~ are classed as employed
at manufacturing and mining. For present
purposes, however, the last number given
should be considerably reduced Without
attempting to enumerate, it will be conceded
mat there should be deducted from those
winch it includes, 375, 143 carpenters and
Jolners; $50, no milliners. dressmakers and
seamstresses: 172, 126 blacksmiths, 13s, rs
taiors and tailorcsses: ITO, go masons. 81; 70 c'o
s4l butchers; a, 3O9 bakers; 90, 1872 plaster
ers, and 4, sol manufacturers of agricul-
tural implements. leaving 9. G23. Osy
persons employed in i'll man I1fciur.
l ll1!x industries such as are claimed
T W. ,ho De benefited by, high tariff
ployment and maintain their wages by reg
lsterlng change. There should be no dis
positlon TO answer such suggestions by allie
cations that they are in IL
MINORITY AMONG THOSE WHO I,ADoH.
and therefore should forego an advantage in
IN. 1ne interest OF low price for the majority.
Their compensation, us it may be affected
by the operations of the tariff laws, should
at al tunes be scrnpulously kept in view,
ana yet, with slight reflection they will
not overlook the fact that they are consnm-
ers with the rest: that they. too, have their
own wants and those of their families to
supply from their earnings, and that the
prices OF the necessaries of life. as we'll as
the amount OF those wants, will regulate the
measure of their welfare and comfort.
but tne reduction OF taxation demanded
or justify either the loss of employment by
the workingman, nor the lessening of his
wages. and the profits still remain
ing to the manufacturer, after
necessary REIMBURSEMENT, should
furnish no excuse for the sacrifice of the
opportunity to work or the dimunition of
their compensation. Nor can the workers
in manufactures understand that while a
high tariff is claimed to be necessary to al
low the payment of remunerative wages, it
Certainly results in very large increase in
in almost countless forms he needs for the
use of himself and his family. He receives
at the desk of his employer his wages, and
perhaps before he reaches home is obliged,
in the purchase for the family of articles
which embrace his own labor, to return,
IN the payment of the increasing price which
the tariff permits, the hard earned compen-
sation of many days labor.
The farmers and the agricultural laborer,
who manufacture nothing, but who
PAY THE INCREASED PRICE
WHiCh th0 Id1 Ill 1uupOaeS upon every lHrlCui-
tural implement upon all they wear, and
upon all they use and own, exceptthe increase
intheir t1ocks and herds and such things as
their husbandry produces from the soil are
invited to aid in maintaining the present
situation. Mind that they are told that a high
duty on imported wool is necessary for tho
benefit of those who have sheep to shear, in
order that the price of their wool may be
increased
They OF course are not reminded that the
farmer who has no sheep is by this scheme
obliged, i'll his purchase of clothing and
WOODEN goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow
farmer, as well as to the manufacturer and
merchant, nor is any mention made of the
fact that the sheep owners themselves and
their household must wear clothing and use
other articles manufactured from the wool
they sell at tariff prices, and thus as con-
sumers must return their share of this in
creased price to the tradeslnan.
think it may be fairly assumed that a
large proportion of the sheep owned by the
farmers throughout the country are found
in small hOcks, numbering from twenty five
to fifty. The duty on the grade
OF imported wool which these sheep
yield is 10 cents for each
pound of the value of 80 cents or less and
II cents for each pound of the value of more
than 30 cents. If the liberal estimate of six
pounds be allowed for each fleece. the duty
thereon would be 60 or 20 cents, and this
may be taken Us the utmost advancement of
its price to the farmer by reason of this duty.
Eighteen dollars would thus represent the
increased price of the wool from twenty five
sheep, and 1876 that from the wool of fifty
sheep; and at present values, this addi-
ton would amount to about one third of its
price, if upon its sale the farmer receives
this or a less tariff profit. The wool leaves
which, in all its changes, will adhere to it,
until it reaches the consumer. When manu-
featured into cloth and other goods and
material for use its
COST IS NOT ONLY INCREASED
to the extent of the farmer tariff profit, but
a further sum has been added for the benefit
of the manufacturer, under the operation of
the tariff laws. In the meantime the day
arrives when the farmer finds it necessary
to purchase WOODEN goods and material to
clothe himself and family for the winter.
When he faces the tradesman for that pur-
pose he discovers that he is obliged, not
only to return i'll the way of increased
prices his tariff profit on the wool sold. and
which then perhaps lies before him i'll man
ufactured form, but that he must add a con-
siderable sum thereto to meet further in
crease in cost caused by tariff duty on the
manufacture. Thus i'll the end lie is
aroused to the fact that he has paid upon
made ratio, upon moderate purchase, as a
result Of the tariff scheme, which, when he
sold his wool, seemed SO profitable, an in
crease in price more than sufficient to sweep
away all the tariff profit he received on the
wool he produced and sold.
When the number of farmers engaged in
wool raising is compared with all the farm
ers in the country, and the small proportion
they bear to our population is considered;
when it is made apparent that, in the case
of a large part of those who own sheep, the
benefit Of the present tariff on wool is il
lusory and above all, when it must be
conceded that the increase of the cost of
living, caused by such tariff, becomes a
burden upon those with moderate means,
and the poor, the employed and the unem-
ployed, the sick and the well, and the young
and old, and that it constitutes a tax which
with relentless grasp is fastened upon the
clothing of every man. woman and child in
the land, the reasons IRE suggested why the
removal or reduction of this duty should be
included in a revision of our tariff laws.
In speaking of the increased cost OF the
consumer of our home manufactures, re-
sulting from
DUTY LAID UPON IMPORTED ARTICLES
of the same description, the fact is not over
looked that competition among our domestic
producers sometimes has the effect Of keep
ing the price of their products below the
highest limit allowed by such duty. but it is
notorious that this competition is too often
strangled by combinations. quite prevalent
Mt This time and frequently called